YouTube blocks “premium” videos in UK after licensing tiff

YouTube fans in the UK will soon be unable to access professionally produced …

YouTube is blocking access to "premium" music videos in the UK thanks to a licensing disagreement between Google and a UK royalty collection group. The group, PRS for Music, has apparently jacked up its licensing fees with YouTube just as its contract has come to an end, leading to a stalemate in negotiations. As a result, YouTube says that it must block the music videos from being accessed within the UK, though it's still hoping for a resolution.

PRS for Music is only one of several organizations that collect royalties whenever a song or music video is licensed. When Google licenses a song for use on YouTube, it's not just dealing with the record label—it also has to come to license agreements with music publishers, composers, and songwriters. PRS for Music represents some 60,000 songwriters, composers and publishers from both major and independent labels, so it's one of the key pieces to the puzzle.

According to a post on the YouTube blog, the current situation came to be after the organization asked YouTube to pay many times more for a new license. "The costs are simply prohibitive for us—under PRS's proposed terms we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback," wrote YouTube's Director of Video Partnerships for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Patrick Walker.

That's just the beginning, however. In addition to the crippling licensing fees, YouTube claims that PRS for Music refused to say which songs were covered under its license. "[T]hat's like asking a consumer to buy a blank CD without knowing what musicians are on it," wrote Walker.

This led YouTube to block all premium videos—those produced by record labels themselves—lest the company risk setting off a chain of copyright claims from PRS for Music. "This was a painful decision, and we know the significant disappointment it will cause within the UK," Walker added.

The dust-up with PRS marks the latest installment in YouTube's ongoing contract negotiation soap opera. In December of 2008, Warner Music decided to walk away from YouTube after revenue sharing renegotiations broke down; apparently, the label just wasn't getting as much money for its content as it had originally expected and pulled all of its content from the site. Now, with the negotiation breakdowns between YouTube and PRS for Music, the situation is looking worse for music lovers who came to YouTube to get their music video fix.

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel, however. Last week, news leaked that Google was in the process of coming up with a new site that would act as a hub for music videos, with Universal Music Group being the anchor tenant. The site would be separate from YouTube and would only contain professionally-produced music content from Universal and—eventually—the other music labels, which would in turn generate more ad revenue than YouTube's current offerings. If it comes to fruition, it could be the kind of thing that would make royalty groups like PRS for Music want to play nice again. In the meantime, Walker says that negotiations between YouTube and PRS for Music are ongoing, and that YouTube hopes to restore premium music videos to UK users "soon."